Nevr doubted the capabilities of the PATRIOT.
The US Navy meeds to begin testing on the feasibility of automated MISSLE SHIPS as part of BUsh's proposed NMD/TMD systems.
A hi-tech ship dedicated to the role of either offensive attack or national sea control or defense is an integral part, of the
nation's security on earth or from space. Given the lilelihood that China and or Russia remain socialist-communist systems, it is certainly
feasible and reasonable to presume they will challenge US naval supremacy by deploying specific classes of modernesque, hi-tech superships
[hermaphrodite, ala IJN from WW2] that better fit the serious-to-severe economic constrainsts of their nation's miltary-industrial cmplexes.
The deployment of automated sea control ships to challenge the US NAvy should be right up their alley.